HarrisMartin's Intellectual Property Law Conference Faculty

Ted Stevenson is a Principal in the Dallas office of McKool Smith. Ted is a trial lawyer and registered patent attorney who has been focused on patent cases for nearly 20 years. Ted has extensive federal trial experience, having won courtroom victories in patent cases involving diverse technologies such as balloon angioplasty catheters, integrated circuits, prepaid calling cards, drilling rigs, and enterprise software. Ted also has tried and won non-patent cases alleging trade secret violations, trade dress infringement, and software performance. Between September 2007 and August 2009 Ted tried five patent cases, three of which resulted in nine figure verdicts in favor of his clients.

Ted has consistently been recognized as one of the best patent litigators in the country. In 2011 Ted was recognized as the best patent litigator in Dallas by Best lawyers in America. Texas Lawyer Magazine recognized Ted as one of the five “go-to” intellectual property litigators in the state. Ted is consistently named by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America in the areas of intellectual property litigation, commercial litigation, and bet-the-company litigation. Texas Super Lawyers consistently ranks Ted among its top-100 lawyers in Texas.

Prior to focusing on patent litigation in 1995, Ted had an active trial docket. Ted has tried cases, both to juries and to the court, for securities fraud, product liability, death penalty habeas corpus, computer software non-performance, divorce, and landlord tenant. Ted enjoys teaching trial advocacy, which he does regularly as a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and also as a presenter at legal seminars.

T. John Ward served as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas from September 24, 1999 until his retirement October 1, 2011. While serving as federal judge, he presided over 150 jury trials and managed a diverse but intellectual property-heavy docket resulting in the final disposition of over three thousand civil cases.

Prior to being appointed to the federal bench, Mr. Ward spent 31 years as an active trial lawyer, trying over 250 cases to jury verdict throughout Texas.
Mr. Ward graduated from Texas Tech University with a B.A. degree in Chemistry and received his law degree from Baylor University.

At the time of his appointment by President Clinton, in addition to being licensed in Texas, Mr. Ward was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, as well as the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas.

Mr. Ward is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. He served as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Court Management from October 2003 to October 2009. He is a long-time Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (1986-1999 and Oct. 2011-present) and was a Judicial Fellow during his years on the bench (1999-Oct. 2011). He is also an Advocate of the American Board of Trial Advocates (1990-present). He served on the Board of Governors of the Fifth Circuit Bar Association from 1987 to 1991 and from 1996 to 1999. Baylor University Law School named Judge Ward the 2004 Baylor Lawyer of the Year. In 2006 the American Inns of Court, in cooperation with the members of the local bar, chartered the Honorable T. John Ward American Inn of Court for East Texas. In 2009 the Texas Chapters of American Board of Trial Advocates named Judge Ward Trial Judge of the Year. Judge Ward was profiled in the Fall 2010 Intellectual Property supplement to American Lawyer Magazine and was selected as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in IP. Judge Ward served as a member of the National Patent Jury Instruction Project at the request of Chief Judge Paul R. Michel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This project was completed in June 2009, and the results may be found at http://www.nationaljuryinstructions.org/.

Ruffin Cordell is a Principal of Fish & Richardson in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. His practice emphasizes all aspects of intellectual property litigation, including patent, copyright, and trade secret law. He appears regularly as lead counsel before federal district courts in Texas, Virginia, California, and throughout the country, and has extensive experience before the ITC in Section 337 proceedings.

Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, he was an examiner in computer interface device technology at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Cordell was named one of the Legal Times' "Leading IP Lawyers in D.C." in October 2003. He was also named one of The Best Lawyers in America from 2006 through 2011, and one of the "Top 50 Under 45" attorneys in IP Law & Business in May 2008.